


30 Day OTP Challenge (+1)

by Josephine_StJames



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: First Kiss, Fluffy Times, Homophobic Language, Hospital Patient Au, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sexy Times
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-10-11
Packaged: 2017-12-04 21:04:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 20,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/715071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josephine_StJames/pseuds/Josephine_StJames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Decided to try my hand at this after having the idea for an AU with a seriously sick!Billy and the boys getting to know each other in the hospital. Some chapters will be continuous but it will space out over about 4 years. The first is a prologue because I felt the need to somewhat set it up without making the first chapter too long. (Also includes poorly thought out Avengers cameos everywhere)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I have extended the prologue because the first chapter was still too big, I DON'T KNOW HOW SO WRITE SMALL PIECES!  
> They never actually mentioned what Mrs. Altman's first name was in the comics so I decided on Nell in reference to Princess Anelle.  
> I also made her a nurse because; A. In the comics she was Anelle's nursemaid, B. It tied in nicely for why Teddy would visit the hospital so much/why she wouldn't be home so much and C. Creative license, deal with it.  
> I'll also delve deeper into the steroids reference in later chapters.  
> Let me know what you guys think!

Today was NOT a good day for Theodore Rufus Altman. Why? Because Greg is a dick, that's why. He is a dick whom, as of last week, he no longer associates with. He is a dick whom he no longer associates with AND, as of this afternoon, now knows too much about him. Teddy had let himself be pushed into a lot of things during they're friendship; the drinking, the steroids, the bullying. And while he had never been totally okay with letting these things slide, last week he decided "enough was enough". And, yeah, for a week that had worked out pretty good, Greg had kept his distance, as well as most of the douchebags he wasted a good portion of high school hanging around with. For almost 5 days he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders... Until he caught Greg and Kesler harassing another "gay" kid right next to his locker. Wether the dude had actually been gay or not was irrelevant, Teddy was so over this particular scenario, and now that he was longer worried about his popularity torpedoing he finally had the courage to step in. After some brief shoving and colourful language Teddy felt as though he had the upper hand. Greg and Kesler had both backed off and the kid had quickly walked over to a small group calling his name, Johnny or Jimmy or something. Just as Teddy was about to walk away Greg opened his stupid mouth.

"What the fuck is up with you Altman, why are you suddenly acting like such a faggot?"

"Maybe because I AM a "faggot" Greg! Yeah, all this time while you've been a homophobic prick and your best friend was gay. Fuck you, jackhole!"

The last thing Teddy heard as he made his way out of the school's front doors was Kesler laughing something along the lines of: "Ew dude, what the fuck? Didn't you sleep in his bed on Saturday after Kate's party? He probably touched you while you were passed out drunk!"

Teddy speed-walked all the way to the hospital were his mom worked. He always dropped in on Wednesday and Friday after school to bring her a late lunch/early dinner while she worked. He couldn't believe he just let that out. And to Greg and Kesler of all people. The first two people he had come out two, besides his mom a couple of months ago, were the two most notorious bullies in the school.

_Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit._

He rounded the corner from the reception off in his own melancholia world at full speed and almost went face first into a pile of construction gear. Apparently he had completely missed the sign saying "Warning: Construction. Detour through Paediatrics". Didn't he feel like a dick walking back past reception and Janet stifling a giggle from behind the desk.

"Kinda forgot they were doing renovations in that corridor," Teddy blushed.

"So I see," Janet winked. "I did try to yell out to you but you were off on a mission, tell your Mom I say 'hello'!"

"Will do, Jan!" Teddy yelled back as he opened the double doors to the paediatrics ward. He had never liked coming through here and today more so than ever. He felt guilty for freaking out earlier about the whole Greg incident when this ward was full of sick, some terminally, children. Nothing like a reality-check to throw off your self-loathing. He made is way briskly towards the end of the ward, this wasn't really a place he wanted to spend a lot of time in. He was 3 rooms for the end of the ward when a male nurse he recognised as his Mom's friend, Peter, walked out of a room with patient that looked like he was having a bit of trouble walking on his own. Turned and noticed Teddy heading their way.

"Hey Ted, Nell's feeding time is it?" As Peter laughed the patient he was supporting seemed to look up at the mention of Teddy's name.

"Yeah I was just heading on through to the cafe to ge..." Teddy recognised that slightly sickly and slightly panicked face looking up at him, "Billy?"

"Umm, h-hey Teddy, what's up?" Billy Kaplan seemed to be growing increasingly nervous the longer Teddy stared at him. But to be fair, this was the last person he'd expected to run into.

"Uhh, yeah, not much, just coming to see my mom. Is this... Why you haven't been at school the last few weeks?" He knew it was rude but he couldn't help looking Billy up and down as he spoke, the kid really didn't look well.

"Heh, yeah, you've sort of happened upon my secret double life Altman. I may have to perform a mind wipe before you leave," Billy didn't sound too confident in his own joke but it got a smile out of both Teddy and Peter. "So is you mom a patient here or...?"

"Oh, nah, she works down in ICU, I come down some afternoons to eat with her while she has a break."

"Really? That's cool. I'm surprised I haven't seen you around here before."

"Yeah, I usually go the other way but it's blocked off for the renovations."

"Ahh, well that makes sense."

Teddy stood there awkwardly for a second, not really sure of how continue on the conversation with the cute guy from his home-room in the middle freakin' paediatrics corridor. Just when he was about to say, he doesn't even know what, Billy cut in.

"Well it's been cool seeing you and all Teddy, but we were actually just on our way, ahem, to the, uhh, bathroom?" He cringed and blushed, and it took Teddy a second realise that, yes, it would be rather uncomfortable being stopped by your classmate in a hospital while another man was helping you get to the toilet.

"Oh, umm, sorry to hold you up. I should probably go see my Mom anyways." Billy smiled as he and Peter made their way around Teddy. He was about to start heading towards the exit when that impulsiveness in his voice struck again.

"Hey, I'm going to the cafe and I'm probably only going be about 15 minutes with my mom, did you want me to grab you anything? Seeing as I'm going to be coming back through this way anyhow?" He pretended he didn't know EXACTLY why he was blushing. Billy turned and smiled again, this time there seemed to be a little more warmth behind it.  
"Umm, I'm pretty good for anything from the cafe but I wouldn't say no to some company, you know, if you're going to be here anyway?"

"Yeah totally, " Teddy grinned. "I'll see you back here in a little while." And with that sorted Teddy made his way out the door and towards the cafe with a spring in his step and butterflies in his stomach.

-

Billy started hobbling down the corridor once again with the help of Peter. When they were almost at the door for the bathroom he felt Peter squeeze his shoulder.  
"Dude, Teddy is totally 'home-room hottie' isn't he?"

Billy froze, "I don't know what your talking about Peter."

"You do so, I saw you checking him out Kaplan." Peter laughed and lightly ruffled Billy's hair. "'Big, blonde Adonis-type with a row of ear peircings'? I should have connected the dots when you first mentioned him."

"Oh my god..." Billy grinned and ducked his head.

"You know I'm friends with Nell, his Mom, and I've known him since he was 10 right? I could totally play matchmaker here." Billy burst out laughing at the thought of one of his nurses trying to set him up with the hottest jock at his school.

"While I appreciate the offer and all, I doubt that he's into dudes. However, I'm not going to say no to hanging out with him outside of school."

"Yeah, I bet," Peter laughed and opened the door of the bathroom to let Billy through who was now quite red.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They never actually mentioned what Mrs. Altman's first name was in the comics so I decided on Nell in reference to Princess Anelle.  
> I also made her a nurse because; A. In the comics she was Anelle's nursemaid, B. It tied in nicely for why Teddy would visit the hospital so much/why she wouldn't be home so much and C. Creative license, deal with it.  
> I'll also delve deeper into the steroids reference in later chapters.  
> Let me know what you guys think!


	2. Holding Hands

After Teddy had reluctantly kissed him mom goodbye, with much wooing from Jen and Carol, the other nurses on today, he hurriedly made his way back to paediatrics to see Billy. He still wasn't quite sure how he felt about all of this. Of course he was excited about seeing Billy, he had missed having classes with him and chatting away about geeky crap, until Greg would come over and effectively end their conversation (why didn't Teddy stand up to him sooner?). But he also knew that Billy must be pretty sick to have had this much time off school and instead been in the hospital. He wondered what he had? He looked pretty sick before so he clearly wasn't getting out any time soon.

_Oh shit, what if it's terminal? What if he's not coming back to school? What if he's never leaving this hospital? What if he hasn't got that much time left?_

By the time he finished that train of thought he realised he was in front of Billy's room. He nervously knocked on the door frame and tiptoed into the room. Billy looked up from the Aquaman comic he was reading and smiled when he saw Teddy.

"Hey."

"Hi."

Teddy stood awkwardly, again, by Billy's bed, still thinking too much about how sick Billy might be rather than how to make the conversation flow.

"So... I'm assuming your probably wondering why I haven't been at school?" Billy gestured to the chair beside him and Teddy took a seat.

"Uhh, yeah, just a little bit."

Teddy sat and listened as Billy went on to tell him that when he was about 12 he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He had to go through almost a years worth of chemotherapy and he thought he was in the clear but a few weeks ago he had his 5 year mark check-up they realised that he wasn't. He was starting new round of chemo on Sunday. Teddy sat there dumbfounded and Billy asked, with a slight bit of fear in voice, for him to keep all this under his hat because he knew his friends liked to gossip. They then discussed how Teddy wasn't actually associated with that group any more, much to Billy's pleasure, he'd always hated Greg and Kesler, which was understandable considering how much shit they both gave him.

They ended up talking for a couple of hours about what was going on at school, the latest Batman comic, new tv shows about to start to start up on the fall line-up. It was about quarter to 6 when Peter stuck his head into the room.

"Hey Bills, I'm sorry to interrupt but it's that time again, buddy. I only need to fill two tubes today so it'll be real quick and then you can have your dinner, okay?"

Billy seemed to go even paler, if that was possible, as his eyes zoomed in on the needle on the tray in Peter's hands. Teddy noticed that his eyes were starting to well and he thought Billy might actually cry. It caused a lump to grow in his own throat.

"Heh, you'd think I'd be used to this by now, but..." He tried to laugh but it came out as more of a whimper.

"Well why don't you give Teddy's hand a squeeze while I do it? He's big and strong, I'm sure he'll be able to take it. You don't mind do you, Ted?"

Teddy was all too happy to lend a hand, so to speak.

"Yeah, no problem, do your worst B." He smiled and held out his hand to a hesitant looking Billy. He almost didn't think Billy was going to take his hand, but as soon as Peter tightened the tourniquet he quickly latched on. As Peter got ready to plunge the needle in Billy turned his head toward Teddy, he was panicking. His grip tightened slightly once the needle had actually broken skin but Teddy knew he was holding back.

"C'mon Kaplan, you're not even trying," Teddy laughed, "I've seen you in gym, I know you can do better than that."

"Clearly you _haven't_ actually seen me in gym then." Billy let out a light laugh and tightened his hand.

"Hey, I saw that day Kessler tried to jack your Nightwing figurine, you clearly have a death-grip if he couldn't pry that from your hands." Billy laughed harder this time and shook as he tightened his grip further. Teddy was certainly feeling it but he wasn't about to let Billy know that. Next thing they knew Peter was was tightening the cap on the second vile and the needle was sitting back on the tray.

"There all done, that wasn't so bad was it?"

"Really? I didn't even notice the needle was gone."

"It's amazing how easily you can be distracted from these kinds of things." Peter said knowingly and Billy blushed. Teddy smiled and ran his thumb over Billy's knuckles a couple of times before letting go.

"Well I should probably take off, homework and such." Teddy reluctantly got up and swung his school bad over his shoulder. "But do you think you'd be up for a visit tomorrow? I could bring my PSP, or my DS, or my Gameboy or something for you to borrow?"

"Yeah I'd like that, thanks. And thanks for sticking around today and, uhh, just before." Billy replied a little sheepishly.

"Hey, it's what I'm good for. Your first hand hold is on the house but if you are in need of my services again I'm going to have to charge you, because that actually kind of hurt towards the end." Teddy said as he walked backwards toward the door.

"Oh, sorry," Billy laughed, "I'll see you tomorrow T."

"Bye, Billy. See you later Pete."

"See ya Ted!"

Teddy gave one last wave and made his way out into the corridor, feeling pleased as punch and excited about tomorrow.

-

"You can submit your 'thank-you' in writing to my office along with some form of candy."

"Shut-up, Peter, you don't even have your own office."

Peter winked as he left the room. Not even surgery could remove the smile from Billy's face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I barely skimmed through this to proof read, so it's probably riddled with mistakes, I do apologise


	3. Cuddling Somewhere

Teddy did end up going back Saturday afternoon. And Tuesday afternoon. And Wednesday afternoon. And Friday afternoon. And on the following Saturday it was decided that Billy was allowed to spend some time at home under the care of his parents and in-home nurses. And this was why Teddy was standing on the porch of the Kaplan's house, nervously raising his hand to knock on the door.

He had really been enjoying his time spent with Billy lately, although it was under unfortunate circumstances. He had always gotten along with him at school, they probably would have been best friends by now if Teddy wasn't so obsessed with what people thought of him. Well, back then anyway. Billy was also one of the reasons that he finally realised he was gay. He'd been catching himself forever checking out other guys, but Billy was his first real crush. However the day it sort of dawned on him was also the day Kessler knocked Billy into unconsciousness for being a "geeky-fag", so Teddy repressed that shit real quick. He could dwell on how much he wished didn't later, the door was opening.

"Altman? Geez you'll just follow my brother anywhere won't you?" Tommy sneered in the doorway. Teddy had learnt long ago that he wasn't actually a big a dick as he made himself out to be.

"Hey Tommy. How is he?"

"Not real good today, and he's pretty upset because if he doesn't improve they're going to have to take him back to hospital." For a brief moment Tommy genuinely looked concerned about his twin. "So don't say anything to set him off alright?"

"You know I won't, dude."

"Do I?" He moved from the doorway to let Teddy past and then led him upstairs to Billy's bedroom. Teddy has his hand on the door knob when he heard sniffling coming from inside the room. He took a deep breath and opened the door to see Billy curled up on his bed hugging a Flash plushie, which he thought was both gut-wrenching and adorable. Billy looked up at him with blood-shot eyes and tear tracks running down a very gaunt face. Beside the bed was what looked like a bucket with vomit in it, although Teddy wasn't about to look in to confirm that.

"Oh, _shit_ , hey Teddy, sorry. I didn't realise what time it was."

Teddy didn't say anything, he just crossed the room to Billy's bed, crawled across him and pulled him into his side. Billy seemed a little taken back at first but swung his arm over Teddy's waist eventually and snuggled into him. They lay there in silence for a few minutes, Billy with head resting on Teddy's arm sniffling every now and then and Teddy rubbing his thumb in a circle between Billy's shoulder blades.

"Thanks," Billy said weakly after a while, "I'm sorry I'm all teary, and sweaty, and pukey."

"I had only slightly noticed," Teddy smiled and turned his face into Billy's knitted cap. "Your hat smells like clean."

"Would that be the equivalent of sniffing my hair if I had enough to sniff?"

Teddy laughed, "Probably. I have to substitute my creepiness from hair sniffing to hat sniffing"

"You're a dork," Billy giggled, "I like your Superboy hoodie."

"This thing is my first love, I got it a comic-con last year." Teddy looked down proudly at his sweater and then between them where the plushie was wedged. "What's the story with little Flash? Does he want cuddles too?"

Billy let out a short but loud laugh, "Actually this little guy belongs to Tommy, he like's the speedsters. He let me borrow him last night for snuggles. I think that's the closest I'm ever going to get to Tommy giving me a hug." He smiled up at Teddy.

"That's probably the nicest thing I've heard about that kid. But I suppose if Flash is here to cuddle you, my skills are clearly not needed." He jokingly made to leave but Billy's arm slid further and tighter around his waist.

"Nooooooo, hmph," Billy nuzzled into Teddy's shoulder, "I are comfy!"

Teddy laughed and snuggled into Billy, running his knuckles up and down his back. "Good, 'cause so am I and I really don't want to get up now."

So he didn't. They lay there like that all afternoon talking and laughing, until Billy started to feel sick again. Teddy rubbed his back while he sat with his face in the bucket until Mrs. Kaplan came up and took over. Teddy took that as his cue to leave but before he left Billy invited him to come play video games on Tuesday night with a couple of his friends that he had shared hospital rooms with. He accepted maybe a little too eagerly.

-

After Billy was feel significantly less nauseated Tommy slipped into his room, sat down on the edge of his bed and looked him straight in the eye.

"Can I help you To..."

"Do you like Altman?"

"Of course I like Ted, we're friends."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"... Well, yeah, maybe I sort of kind of have a little bit of a crush on him. But it doesn't matter, I doubt the feeling is mutual."

"Wha... SERIOUSLY!? You do know that he's gay right?"

"Teddy? No he isn't, have you seen the cheerleaders he has been with? The _female_ cheerleaders?"

"Pfft, he never did shit with any of them. It's all people have been talking about this week at school. Last Friday he pretty much screamed it at Greg in the hallway and then told him to get fucked. I'm kind of surprised he never mentioned any of this to you."

Billy had to take a minute to get his head around that fact that his biggest crush was in fact gay. "Oh my god... He told me that he wasn't hanging out with the jocks any more but... Wow. Well that still doesn't mean that he's interested in his geeky-little-cancer-kid-friend."

"The dude has been coming to hang out with you every chance he gets and he just spent nearly 4 hours cuddling you to goop. You want my advice?"

"Umm, no."

"Shut up. Ask him out. I think you'd be good for each other. He's been looking pretty miserable at school lately, but he really perks up when he's with you. And he seems to make you happy. So, yeah." Tommy had starting looking at the floor halfway through his sentence.

"Aww Tommy, is that your way of saying you approve of Teddy?" Billy couldn't help but laugh, it was quite a rarity for Tommy to be so honest with him, well, about this sort of thing anyway.

"Fuck off. Just tell him you want to bang him or something, he'll probably agree to it." Tommy quickly replied before getting up and making a bee-line for the door.

"Hey, thanks Tommy."

"Whatever Kaplan, see ya."


	4. Gaming/Watching a Movie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to bring Eli and Nate into it as best I could with what I thought were clever little connections to their back stories last night, having finished this chapter though, I think I may have missed the mark slightly. OH WELL! Enjoy

The last couple of days had actually been pretty good at school. Tommy had started coming to sit with Teddy, Kate and Cassie at lunch, much to all their surprise. It was good though, it had been a while since Teddy had been laughing and having fun at school. The girls had been great during the previous week, sticking with Teddy during the fallout of his quite vocal coming-out, but that had been more comfort and deep'n'meaningful's than anything else. Watching Kate and Tommy argue proved to be an entertaining distraction. He wished he had that distraction now.

He had decided earlier on today, after what he couldn't help but think were hints from Tommy, to ask Billy if he wanted to go out on a date. But during his drive over to the Kaplan household to play video games with Billy and his friends, he was hit in face full force with doubt.

_What if this just isn't the right timing. He's been sick and going through chemo treatment, as if he would even want to think about dating at the moment. As if he would even want to think about dating you? Just because he's gay _(Tommy had mentioned that fact several times at lunch)_ and you're friends doesn't mean he's interested in you like that. **But I have been getting along really well and that cuddling couldn't have been nothing the other day?** Dammit Altman, you're looking too far into something that's probably not even there. Stop thinking about it, you're going to make the whole night awkward for everyone._

Teddy made his way to the front door and was greeted by Billy's dad, who was always so nice it was almost eerie, almost. Jeff led him through to the living room where Billy was sitting on the couch wrapped in a blanket, talking to two other boys sitting in beanbags on the floor.

"T! Hey, what's up? This is Eli and Nate." Billy smiled brightly and pointed out each of the other boys while moving over to make room for Teddy on the couch. After Teddy shook their hands they started to argue with each other about which game to play, quite heatedly too. Billy leaned in close to his ear.

"Eli was admitted to hospital in the same week that I was way back when. He's got diabetes and used to comfort me when I was having blood tests because he was so used to injecting himself and stuff. Nate was already in there before both of us, he was attacked by a bunch of bullies with knives. Hey had to be hooked up to all sorts of machines for months but he was starting to come good by the time Eli and I got there. He had heaps of nerve damage done to his knee too, so that's why he has to wear that big mechanical brace thing. He used to hate it but now he loves it because they used a similar sort of thing in The Dark Knight Rises." Billy all but giggled about that last part.

The other two eventually both agreed on Tekken. Tommy had joined them with some snacks by this point and they all settled into several rounds of PVP matches against each other. Nate seemed to be a pro at this game and had memorised the combo's for nearly every character he played as, Eli was the only one who wasn't impressed. After Billy and Teddy had finished their last game, filled with laughing and button bashing, they sat back and watched Eli and Nate play are far more serious round and got in increasingly angrier at each other. Before they could finish though Eli leaned back against his beanbag. He was was sweating and his hand were starting to shake.

"Whoa, Eli, you okay, dude?" Billy asked a little frantically.

"Yeah, just need my glucometer and some jelly beans, they're on the other side of the couch." Replied Eli a little shakily.

Teddy reached down over the armrest beside him and passed Eli is backpack.

"I'll get you a glass of milk." Tommy got up and make his way to the kitchen and Nate reached for his own backpack.

"I've got some got some Rice Krispy Treats in my bag, will that and the milk be enough carbs until you get home?"

"Yeah that should be fine." Eli said around a mouthfull of jellybeans and laughed, "Good hustle team."

Tommy entered the room again.

"Here. Once you've finished that I'll drive you home. Rebecca! I'm borrow the car to take the guys home!"

"Okay sweetheart, drive safe!" Called Mrs. Kaplan from the study down the hall.

"I'm assuming you want a lift now too, Nate?"

"Yeah, I should probably get going and finish the rest of my homework. Bye guys." He got up and waved. "Nice to meet you Teddy."

"Same with you guys." Smiled Teddy.

"Sorry about this, we'll get in touch soon and to do this again, yeah?" Eli got up and joined Nate and Tommy at the door.

"Of course. Bye guys, hope your alright, Eli!"

Once the boys had left Teddy turned to Billy who was reaching for the controllers again.

"Is he going to be alright?"

"Yeah he should be fine. His sugar dropping is just one of those things that happens sometimes. One more game?" He held the second controller out to Teddy.

"You're on, B." But before Teddy could take the controller, it was pulled from his reach.

"Make it interesting though? The loser takes the victor out for coffee or tea tomorrow afternoon? Maybe?" He was blushing.

Teddy made a show of eyeing him suspiciously. "Why, Mr. Kaplan, are you trying to arrange a date?"

"I do believe I am, Mr. Altman." It was Teddy's turn to blush this time.

"Well in that case, challenge accepted."

Teddy didn't even try to win and he made sure Billy knew it.

-

Tommy pulled into the drive-way just as Teddy was leaving. As he got out of the he noticed Billy leaning against the door frame waving goodbye to the truck taking off down the road. He also noticed the positively giddy smile on his twin's face.

"Why are you so happy? Ted give you a BJ or something?" Billy's smile didn't even falter when he turned to Tommy.

"We're going on a date tomorrow."

"See! I told you he liked you!"

Billy's beaming smile was interrupted by a yawn.

"Oh shit, I think I'm going to go lie down."

"Here, I'll give you a hand."

Tommy took his brother's arm and walked him up the stairs to his bedroom. Billy still has his smile plastered on his face.


	5. On a Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and the next come as a two-parter, working on the next bit and should have it up later today

**Billy <3 8:46am:**  
Hey T. I know ur probs in class atm but im totes excited bout tonite. Just sayin :)

 **Billy <3 9:32am:**  
Can today just go faster please?

 **Billy <3 9:58am:**  
I wonder how many messages i need 2 send before u get ur phone confiscated ;)

 **Billy <3 10:03am:**  
Shit! It hasnt already has it? :O

 **Billy <3 10:17am:**  
If it has im real sorry. Ill stop texting now

 **Teddy x 12:04pm:**  
Dw phone hasnt been confiscated, but mr. Stark was giving me odd looks every time my pencil case vibrated lol. Btw also excited for 2nite =]

 **Billy <3 12:07am:**  
Sorry 4 all the messages, just SUPER bored at home haha. I hope im not building this up 2 much or annoying u btw. Just kinda kean 2 get out of the house and, u know, see u :)

 **Teddy x 12:11pm:**  
Its fine! Ive been bouncing in my seat waiting to get out of here and see u. Tommy actually gave me the whole "u hurt my brother and ill hurt u" speech just before lol XD

 **Billy <3 12:15am:**  
Hahaha! Seriously under that tough persona hes just a little fluffy kitten :D

 **Teddy x 12:17pm:**  
NO HES NOT! HES A GIANT BULLDOG MADE OF FIRE

 **Teddy x 12:17pm:**  
AND NIGHTMARES!

 **Teddy x 12:18pm:**  
Yeah so tommys been looking over my shoulder reading my messages lol also kate and cas say hi

 **Billy <3 12:23am:**  
So i see haha! Sorry 2 shatter the illusion tommy and hi girls! So how did u want to do this tonite?

 **Teddy x 12:27pm:**  
He says u will be lol =] well kinda had this totally amazing idea in class. I was thinking ill swing past home after school and pick up my car, then quickly go see my mom at the hospital, stop in at that coffee shop around the corner, grab us some drinks and then come pick u up 2 take u 2 a mystery location =] what do u want me 2 get u from the coffee shop?

 **Billy <3 12:30am:**  
Ooh this sounds like an intriguing plan sir! :) Can't wait. The in home nurse just rocked up so ill see u later ok :)

 **Billy <3 12:30am:**  
Oh! And could u get me a regular chai tea please? :)

 **Teddy x 12:32pm:**  
No problems :) now 2 try 2 contain my excitement for the rest of school lol

As soon as the final bell rang Teddy was packed up and off the school property before most of the other students had even left their classrooms. He felt a little guilty for cutting his time short with his mom, but she seemed more than happy for him to leave early when he told her where he was going. When he finally got to Billy's house, which seemed like a million hours later after the line in the coffee shop, he saw Billy sitting on steps of the porch all rugged up in thick black cardigan with big silver buttons, a long red scarf and a grey striped beanie that sagged down the back of his head.

"Beanie, scarf and cardie combo, how very hipster of you." Teddy called from his truck window with a smile.

"Think what you will of my fashion sense Altman, but I have no hair and very little insulation to keep me warm, so nerr." Billy stood up and poked out his tongue.

"Well then why don't you step in my nice warm truck and enjoy a hot beverage?"

"Don't mind if I do."

Billy jumped into the passenger seat and accepted his tea from Teddy eagarly, breathing the steam from the cup in deep. He then turned his head in Teddy's direction and sniffed the air.

"Oh my god what is that? It smells amazing!"

"That would be my hazelnut mocha. Here, have a sip." Teddy passed over his own cup for Billy to try.

"Whoa, that's really sweet! But so gooooooood."

Teddy turned the engine back on a put the car into reverse. But before he put the car in motion he turned to Billy with a cheeky grin.

"What?"

"We totally just shared an indirect kiss."

Billy burst out laughing as they backed out of the driveway and into the street to make their way to Teddy's "mystery location".

The trip took a little over 20 minutes but it seemed much shorter to the boys who were joking and laughing the whole drive. Teddy eventually pulled into a relatively empty field just out of the city and parked his truck by a huge tree. It was a spot his Mom used to take him around this time of year when he was little so that he could play in the leaves. He decided this morning that he would be totally cheesy and take Billy up there to sit in the trailer of his truck and watch the sunset. Billy was told to stay where is was for a second while Teddy jumped out and started setting up a picnic rug along the floor of the trailer along with a couple of pillows and a blanket.

"Alright! You can come out here now!"

Billy walked around to the back of the truck and stared in awe.

"It's kind of stupid, but I thought we could hang out here and watch the sunset and stuff and I brought a blanket in case you got cold. Plus, like, we're out of the way of other people so we wouldn't have to worry about anyone from school seeing us and asking questions about why you're not at school or some douchebag rocking up and ruining the whole thing by giving us shit for being together or..."

"You're amazing." Billy was beaming. Even with his pale and tired face, there was a certain warmth shining through. It made Teddy relax and smile back before helping Billy into the trailer. Once he was up safely Teddy crawled up, settled in next to him and pulled the blanket over them. They sat tangled together; Billy's head on Teddy's shoulder, he legs sitting across the others lap, Teddy leaning towards Billy with his legs curled up so they were huddled together. Billy had an arm around Teddy's waist which Teddy was lightly stroking it with his finger tips. They were comfortably silent for a few minutes before Billy spoke up.

"Where the hell did you mange to find a Martian Manhunter blanket?"

**TO BE CONTINUED....**


	6. Kissing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The date continued...

It was still about nearly an hour until sunset when the boys had arrived so they had plenty of time talk away and get comfortable. Billy told Teddy about how in Middle School he found out he was adopted and went on a search for his real mother. While he wasn't able to find his mother did end up finding Tommy in a youth correctional faculty. He'd been living with a foster family before that and, from what Billy had said, made juvie seem like the more pleasant option. Teddy's respect for the Kaplan's kindness went up tenfold when he listened to all the trouble they went to take Tommy in. He didn't want to be formally adopted but Billy was convinced that he was much happier living with them.

Teddy then told the story of his time with Greg. How he used to be so self-conscious that he would let Greg talk him into just about anything if it meant he could still stick around with that group. It started with going to parties and getting drunk and kissing girls, if only because he was terrified of people figuring out he was gay (although he would pretend to be drunker than he was so he could go "pass out" somewhere before he had to go any further than kissing). Around this time Greg had convinced him to start taking performance enhancing drugs before their basketball games. Teddy wasn't overly comfortable with the whole thing but, hey, at least he was popular! But it was one day that he started bullying another kid to make the guys laugh that he decided he really didn't like the person he was becoming. Billy already knew the rest of the story about him basically telling Greg to fuck off.

"You know he kissed me once."

"Who? Greg?" Billy looked up at Teddy in shock.

"Yeah, I don't think he remembers it though. He was really drunk and I was helping him get home after a party. He was about to open his front door when he just turned and kissed me on the lips. I just kind of stood there like "what the fuck?", and then he grunted and went inside. I never brought it up with him but I doubt he knows about it."

"Wow, that's... Weird."

"I know right?"

There were a few seconds of silence.

"Did you ever have a crush on him?"

"Ehh, sort of. I mean, he's pretty hot and he was my best friend so I kinda thought about it sometimes, but his personality just kind of killed it for me."

"I think I know what you mean. I've always hated that he's so freakin' hot. Nothing kicks you when you're down more than checking out the guy who is actually kicking you while you're down."

They both burst out laughing about that.

"So would that be your type then? Big, blonde jock type?" Teddy winked and Billy sat up slightly so they were at eye level with each other.

"I can think of one guy who's kinda like that, but he's way more attractive than Greg. Wouldn't mind getting to know him a little better" His reply was accompanied by a waggle of his brow.

"He sounds sexy."

"I have it on good authority that he's pretty easy on the eye in the orange glow of a sunset." He leaned forward slightly so that his forehead was almost touching Teddy's. A chill of nerves and excitement ran down the blondes back.

"Do _you_ have a particular type?"

"I kinda like slightly lanky, sorta geeky, brunettes with deep chocolate brown eyes who will come and sit with me in the back of my truck in the middle of nowhere and wears scarf's. Red scarf's to be specific. But, you know, I'm not picky." Billy laughed and Teddy could smell the chai on his breath he was that close.

"Hmm, I don't think know anyone like that."

"Oh? That's a shame." Teddy leaned in at little more, connecting their noses. Billy suddenly sounded uneasy.

"I do know this one guy though, who's pretty sick and kinda looks like shit and he's really hoping you don't feel obligated to do all of this just to be nice."

Teddy whispered back, "I want to..." before closing his eyes and brushing his lips over Billy's. He let it linger for a second, his heart beat pumping through his ears, then pushed forward a little to bring the tip of Billy's top lip between his own. Billy did the same to Teddy's bottom lip and he could feel the smile against his mouth. As they continued these slow, drawn out little kisses, Billy slowly moved his hands up Teddy's chest and neck to cup his jaw. He moved his own arm around Billy's shoulders to hold the back of his head, his other hand giving Billy's hip a small squeeze, and titled his head to deepen the kiss. Billy inhaled sharply while surging forward a little and his fingers slid into blonde hair.

Teddy could have stayed like this all night. Holding Billy so closely and the passion behind the kissing as almost enough to make him whimper. But the sun had gone down and a cold Autumn breeze was starting to pick up. He knew that the other boy would need to get home before it got too cold and late. So they pulled it back and finished with several small, quick pecks. They sat for a minute just basking in each other until Teddy lightly bumped their head together.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that." Big brown eyes met blue.

"Really? Me too."

"We should do this again sometime soon, like, real soon."

"I think it's important that we do." The smile Billy had was so bright and genuine, Teddy couldn't help but lean back in for another quick kiss.

"As much as I would love to do this for the next, iunno, decade? I really have to get back home or my mom will flip her shit if I stay out in the cold for too long."

Teddy helped Billy off the trailer and piggy backed him around to the passenger door, he didn't really need to, but neither boy paid much mind. The whole drive back to the Kaplan's, their hands were laced on the gear shift.

-

 **Teddy x 8:46pm:**  
Hey so kate just invited us to a halloween party this sat. Its not going to a huge thing, just a few people from school, tommys invited 2 but i was thinking 2nd date maybe?? If ur mom will let u out for the nite Xx

 **Billy <3 9:01pm:**  
Just asked mom, shes cool as long as tommys going 2, ill be making sure of that haha. Thanx for today, i cant wait 2 see u tomoro =] xxx im about 2 crash so ill say goodnite now <3

 **Teddy x 9:04pm:**  
Awesome! it was my pleasure, seriously =] sleep well billy xx  <3 see u 2moro


	7. Wearing Each Other's Clothes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really struggled with this one today, running off about 3 hours sleep so I do apologise if this isn't quite up to par. There also may not be one tomorrow because it's my day off and I plan on spending to majority of it drunk

Teddy was so happy the day was finally over. It was the first day Billy had been back at school in about 5 weeks (he was going to start coming in on Thursdays to spend the day working with a tutor so he would still have a chance at finishing high school) and he hadn't had a chance to see him all day. They were supposed to meet each other during lunch but Teddy's class had been kept in for most of it. _Nearly_ the whole basketball team had managed to get the same score on a recent test and Mr. Pym had kept the entire class behind until someone owned up to cheating. It was obvious that it was Kesler but nobody said anything. By the time they were allowed to leave there was on 15 minutes left and when Teddy eventually found Kate, Cassie and Tommy they told him that Billy went to go have a lie down before his afternoon session.

So Teddy begrudgingly went to back to his afternoon classes, too pissed off at Kesler and too eager to see Billy for adequate concentration. Most of his thoughts consisted of:

_Fucking Kesler not owning up. Fucking Mr. Pym keeping us all in. Fucking shitty chair hurting my back. Fucking pen not working. FUUUUUUCK... I want Billy. ___

Halfway through a conversation at his locker with Kate, after what he was sure was an eternity of Physics with Mr. Stark, he felt a pair of arms slink around his waist and a body press against his back. Bad mood: nullified.

"Where were you during lunch?"

"The entire basketball team, sans me, miraculously got the same score on our Bio test, so the whole class was punished."

"Ahh yes, 'cause that makes total sense. I think I can guess who the real culprit was."

"If your guess is a colossal douchebag with a superiority complex and a giant buttface, then you're probably right."

"Hey, Kesler can't help that he didn't evolve properly."

As Teddy went to turn his head to kiss Billy's cheek, he simultaneously saw Kate's face drop and felt Billy being flung away from him.

Startled at the sudden loss of the body behind him he turned, trying to figure out what the hell just happened, to see Kesler standing over Billy who was now on his ass on the other side of the corridor.

"The fuck did you just say about me you little homo?!" He grabbed Billy by the front of his knitted sweater so sharply that it tore for the collar halfway down to his belly button.

"I implied that your brain is under-developed and your evolutionary process has been stunted. Did you get all those big words, dipshit?"

Teddy would have laughed if Kessler hadn't just made a fist. He snapped out of his stunned stupor to rush forward, grab Kesler's arm and spin him around so they were face to face.

"Don't you dare touch him."

"What, afraid I'll hurt your little girlfriend, Altman? Fucking faggot."

"If he was my girlfriend that would make me straight. He's right, you are a dipshit." He pushed him aside and made to help Billy up, only to see someone else had beat him to it.

"Greg what the fuck? Why are you helping the geek?"

"Dude, c'mon. Stop being a fuckhead, look at him, he's sick. Let's just go." He finished helping Billy to his feet then grabbed Kesler but the jacket and dragged him down the hallway, through much confused protesting from the other. Billy and Kate went to stand by Teddy, watching the other boys walk away, both equally stunned.

"Did that just happen?"

"I think so. Are we in the twilight zone?"

"We must be. Oh shit, look at your sweater." Teddy finally dragged his eyes back to Billy.

"Dammit, this is new too."

"Here, take it off, you can wear this."

As Billy began to remove his sweater he reached into his backpack a pulled out a black hoodie.

"Aww, I can't wear your Superboy hoodie, it's your first love!" The last part was muffled as Teddy pulled the bulk to the sweater over Billy's head.

"I think you're special enough to wear it." He replied with the cheesiest grin he could manage.

Once Billy had pulled his arms through Teddy leaned in and pulled the hood over his head so that they're faces were hidden when he placed a quick kiss on the others lips.

"Are you okay?" Teddy asked with his face still shoved in the hoodie.

"Yeah, my back just kinda hurts. This thing is ridic comfy by the way."

"I know, right?" Another small kiss.

"Umm, do you want a lift home? Tommy had a free this afternoon so he went to pick up my little brothers from their school, but he should be back by now to pick me up, as long as you don't mind sitting next to one of the brats."

"Yeah that sounds good." After one last peck Teddy pulled back, swung Billy's bag over his shoulder with his own, tucked Billy under his other arm, said goodbye to Kate (who had been standing quite awkwardly while the boys had their hoodie conversation) and walked out of the school to go meet Tommy.

-

Teddy had let Billy keep the sweater until he saw him on the weekend. He didn't take it off for the rest of the night. He even curled up that night to sleep in it, which at first he though might make him seem like a real creeper, but he soon forgot about that when he took a deep breath in and fell asleep with the strong scent of Teddy around him.


	8. Cosplaying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of update, there was drinking, there was the mightiest of hangovers and then the was no internet data. I hope this is worth the wait guys =S  
> I also decided to call the younger Kaplan boys Sam and Alex because, for some reason that escapes me know, I thought William, Samuel and Alexander just kind of seemed to work in my head as names Jeff and Rebecca would come up with, iunno

There had been much debate over the last 36 hours about what attire was going to be worn to Kate's party tonight. After much discussion, and disappointment that a Booster Gold/Blue Beetle combo would be too short notice to organise, it had been decided that Teddy would wear the Superman costume his mom made him last year and Billy would take advantage of his current baldnessand borrow Tommy's court suit to go as Lex Luthor. Teddy was impressed that Billy had come up with the Lex Luthor idea on his own, he admired that he still had such a good sense of humour regardless of his current situation. He wished he had Billy's self-confidence, especially now whilst standing on the Kaplan's front porch, dressed as Superman, waiting a million hours for someone to come answer the door (it was more like 30 seconds but time seems to lengthen when you're wearing blue lyrca in a suburban neighbourhood). His salvation finally came in the form of one Dr. Rebecca Kaplan.

"Oh Theodore, don't you look gorgeous!" She smiled from the doorway, "I feel like I should be giving you some candy like all the little trick or treaters who have come past this evening."

"Ahh-hah I think I might be slightly too old for candy collection, but can I come in? I'm feeling slightly exposed out here in this."

"Oh of course, sweetheart. Billy's up in his room getting ready and Tommy is on his way back now from taking Sam and Alex trick or treating, given that Billy couldn't do it this year." It broke Teddy's heart a little bit to see the hint of sadness behind her eyes.

"Thanks Mrs. Kaplan."

"Please, call me Rebecca, dear." She smiled as Teddy nodded and made his way upstairs to Billy's bedroom. The door was already open when he got up there, so he managed to catch a glimpse of Billy with his button up shirt still open as he walked around his room. Even though he had lost a little weight over the past few weeks, he still had a decent set of abs on him, Teddy didn't realise he was staring until Billy looked his way.

"Oh my god, T! You look awesome." He beamed. Teddy felt himself flush at being sprung.

"Oh, uh, t-thanks. I'm actually really glad I got another chance to wear this."

Billy gave him a curious look, "Why's that?"

"I already told you about how mom helped me make, yeah? Well, I was supposed to wear it to a Halloween party last year, but right at the last minute I changed my mind 'cause Greg said that it would be stupid and I wouldn't have a hope of getting laid and all this other crap. Anyways, I chickened out and ended up feeling so guilty the whole night about not wearing it after all the hard work mom put in and when I got home she was sitting on the couch, watching TV after she late shift. She asked me why I wasn't wearing the costume and I started crying because I felt like such a dick. So I kinda feel like I'm making it up to her this year... What?"

Billy was looking at him with an almost smug grin.

"You're a little momma's boy aren't you?" He laughed.

"Ugh, I seriously can't even deny that, I totally am." Teddy was laughing now too, though his laugh was more due to embarrassment as opposed Billy's clear amusement.

"Aww, c'mere cutehead."

Billy stood with his arms out, making grabby hands. Teddy trudged towards him, dragging his feet and slumped into the crook of Billy's neck as pathetically as he could. Billy giggled as Teddy slowly pushed more and more of his weight onto him until they started walking backwards in an attempt to kept upright. Teddy swung them both around right before they toppled onto the bed so that Billy would land on him, instead of the other way around.

"Oomph!" Billy laughed and moved so that his knees were either side of Teddy's hips and his forearms were by his head. Teddy moved his hands up and down Billy's thighs and bit his lip before the other leaned to press their lips together.

"HEY! PDA, there are children about!" They sprung apart and turned to see Tommy, dressed as Kid Flash, yelling from the door with the youngest brother Kaplan peering around him.

"Yay, Billy's boyfriends here!" Alex came bounding into the room, trying not to trip over his little wizard robe and jumped on the bed between them.

"Alex!" Billy looked panicked, "Teddy's.. We're not..." Alex looked up at Teddy in confusion.

"You're not Billy's boyfriend?" Teddy looked over at Billy who was now very red in the face and trying very hard not to make eye contact.

"Yeah. 'Course I am." He smiled when Billy's head snapped up, a sheepish grin creeping over his face.

"Oh, cool, you want some of my candy?" Alex replied happily and passed Teddy a lollipop.

"Alex, you little snot, leave 'em alone, Billy still need to finish getting ready so we can get going." Tommy growled before playfully chasing the giggling little wizard out of the room.

Billy got off the bed to put on his jacket and start doing up his tie. He looked at Teddy behind him through the mirror.

"So, you're my boyfriend huh?"

"Yeah, I was meaning to tell you about that but, you know, slipped my mind." He walked from the bed to hug Billy from behind and peck him on the cheek. "As long as that's, uhh, okay with you?"

"That's plenty fine with me." He turned in Teddy's arms and pulled him in for a kiss.

"What did I say about PDA? You're making out time is cutting into party time!"

"Alright, alright, we're ready, let's go." Billy whined and shot Tommy a glare as he slipped back out of the doorway and started running to the stairs.

"You ready to head off, Superman?"

"Why, yes I am, President Luthor." They laughed and made their way, hand-in-hand out of Billy's bedroom.

-

Once Billy, Kate and Cassie had finished laughing at the fact that Tommy was trying to hit on Karolina, until Xavin came over and kissed her, he turned to watch Teddy over by the drinks table talking to Nico. He caught eye contact and Teddy motioned for him to come over.

"If you'll excuse me ladies, my _boyfriend_ beckons." Billy grinned and made to go slink his way under Teddy's arm.

Kate rolled her eyes with a smile.

"They're so adorable together."

"They so are." Cassie replied.

"It's kind of sickening."

"It so it."

"... I want a boyfriend like that."

"I so do too! Let's go do shots."


	9. Shopping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, I had, like, no free time to write this today and now it's after 1am and I'm too tired to proof read and this probably a hunk of shit and I just barely squeezed in the prompt of shopping... I'm sorry

8 months ago if you told Theodore Altman that he would one day be exclusively dating William Kaplan he would have laughed in your face, and perhaps punched you if Greg was within ear shot. But as it happened, he had been in a very committed relationship with Billy for close to 7 months, and loving every moment of it. At first he thought that maybe this had all been poorly timed, Billy had been sick, dealing with cancer for god's sake. Maybe he should have waited? Maybe he came on too strong and forced Billy into a position where he didn't feel he could turn him down? Maybe Billy was getting tired of not doing anything sexual because Teddy still found it terrifyingly foreign. While Teddy had never thought that Billy's sickness was a burden or had tainted his image of him, maybe Billy had just settled for him because he felt that way. Last month Billy had his last chemo treatment and a short-term all clear from his doctors and Teddy's new found self-confidence did a nose dive. Billy was starting to get back to his old weight, his hair was growing back and Teddy was suddenly filled with the fear that Billy was going to turn around and say, "Look, it's been and all, but I can probably trade you in for an upgrade, lol soz!"

But all of that self-doubt seemed to disappear last night when Billy told Teddy he loved him. It just kind of slipped out during a conversation, causing Teddy to freeze and Billy to turn and exceptional shade of red.

"Ohmygod. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it... Well, actually, I did mean it, but if that was too fast we can just ignore it. I don't want to freak you out or anything... Maybe I should just go home."

He got up and made to leave the Altman's couch when Teddy reached out for his arm, pulled him back onto the couch and into heated kiss. When they finally came up for air Teddy rested his forehead against Billy's.

"I love you, too. I've been wanting to tell you for ages but I was too chicken-shit to say it before we'd done anything sexual, because I didn't think I could handle being that open with you and then you leaving me for someone who actually puts out..." He cut himself off when he felt a lump start to form in his throat.

"Hey, hey, who's leaving anyone here? Did you not see my little freak out just before?" He let out a slight laugh, "This is all still new and scary to me too, babe."

"Yeah, but you've done stuff before with that Jimmy guy."

"Dude, we made out a few times, he gave me a blow job and I jerked him off, not exactly anything to write home about. Not that I ever would tell anyone in my house about that, I don't think I could handle a psycho-analysis on that situation from Dr. Mom." Teddy let out a small laugh.

"But I was supposed to be all Alpha-jock, getting laid at parties and all that crap. And I've done, like, nothing. I got palmed for about 30 seconds by some girl from another school once before I pretended I was going to be sick from drinking too much, which was only half true."

Billy cupped his jaw and looked him in the eye.

"That doesn't matter, if you're not ready then you're not ready, it's okay. Seriously, you've stuck with me through all of this and put so many things aside for me. I'm still a little nervous myself so I don't mind waiting until you feel comfortable enough to make any big leaps."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah I'm sure." He pulled Teddy in for a soft kiss. "And how about this, tomorrow we go down to the drug store together and buy some condoms and lube, so when we decide we're ready to go there we'll be totally prepared."

This time is was Teddy who stole a kiss.

"That actually sounds like a pretty good idea."

So here they were, in the 'planned parenting' section of the drug store, laughing about all the different types of condoms they were finding. Teddy thought this was going to be awkward beyond belief but he was surprised how comfortable he felt, he was sure it was because he was with Billy.

"Ooh, these are blueberry flavoured, we could totally combine these with some of that strawberry lube and have fruity-sexy-times."

"What about some that glow in the dark?"

"We could make terrible Star Wars porn."

"HA! What level of geeky am I if I find that strangely appealing?"

"Hmm, I'd say about a... 9?"

They both ended up buying a packet of regular condoms and lube, however Billy also brought a tube of bacon flavoured lube (that he could not stop laughing about) and Teddy couldn't resist buying the glow in the dark condoms. He still may not have been totally ready to go there yet, but he figured if they could do something like this together easily enough, then maybe the day that they actually put their purchases to use wasn't as far away as he thought.

-

"Tommy, why the hell are you going through my top draw?" Billy asked with an eyebrow raised from his doorway.

"I'm looking for a pen that actually fucking works in this house... Is this bacon flavoured lube?"

Billy's ears suddenly felt incredibly hot.

"Okay, so time for you to leave."

"Getting pretty hot and heavy with Ted, aye?" His smirk was making Billy flush even more.

"Out!"

"Damn Bills, didn't think you'd be such a kinky little shit. All the gear to really make a meal out of Altman's junk..."

"GET OUT, THOMAS!"


	10. Hanging Out With Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't sleep until I had finished this, I'm still not happy with it but it's 2 am so I am officially done with it, hope it turned out alright. Also, Jonas joins the party!

It was the last day of Spring Break so it had been decided that the Kaplan's living room was going be utilised for movie night. It was also a night to celebrate the fact that Billy would be going back to school full time as of tomorrow. Tommy and Kate were sitting on the couch together, they got together after the Halloween party, to the surprise of no one. Cassie was sitting on the other couch and Jonas, a guy from Billy's private tutor group who had a skin condition that made his skin look really red, was sitting beside her. Teddy couldn't help but notice that they were getting along rather well. He was sitting on floor in a bean bag with Billy snugly between his legs. Billy had originally wanted Eli and Nate to be here too, but Eli had moved away to go stay with his Grandpa for a while and Nate has recently had heart complications that landed him back in hospital.

"Why the fuck are we watching a chick flick?" Tommy grumbled before Kate lightly hit him in the chest.

"Because, this is supposed to be for Billy and this is what he wanted to watch." Kate warned.

"And American Beauty is not a chick flick, dumbass." Billy tilted his head back over Teddy's should to glare at Tommy.

"Whatever, it sounds stupid."

Teddy turned to see Kate rub the inside of Tommy's thigh slightly.

"Are you sure you don't just want to sit quietly and watch this?" She said with a smirk.

"C'mon Kaplan, press play already, some of us are waiting to watch the movie!"

Billy rolled his eyes and pressed play on the remote before settling into Teddy. Teddy smiled and wrapped his arms around Billy's torso and lightly dragged his finger tips over his stomach. He found out a few months ago that Billy took real comfort in having his belly scratched, which Teddy found both hilarious and adorable.

Teddy didn't want to admit that he was getting slightly choked up at the end of the movie and he may or may not have been snuggling quiet heavily into Billy. But a sniffle from the couch was enough to distract everyone from the bitter sweet ending. Teddy turned to see Tommy wiping his eye and being cuddled by Kate. He hid in her hair once he realised everyone was looking at him.

"Fuck you guys, I'm picking the next movie."

This started up a small argument amongst the group about what was going to be viewed next. Teddy just sat back, idly rubbing his hands over Billy's thighs, and thought about how much he was enjoying his life at the moment. He had a great group of friends who he could sit around with and be himself without the fear of being judged. He had an amazing boyfriend that he was crazy-in-love with and loved showed him the same amount of love in return. His self-confidence had improved 10 fold. Everything was going so well, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that perhaps something horrible was coming his way. Before he had too much time to over-think that thought he realised Billy was looking up at him.

"..be? Babe? Helloooooooo, Theodooooooooore?"

"Hmm.. Sorry, what?"

Billy laughed, "The consensus was Fight Club for the next movie, are you cool with that, space cadet?"

"Sounds good to me." Teddy replied with a big lazy grin before leaning down to place a slow chaste kiss on Billy's lips. Somewhere in the background he heard a synchronised and overly-dramatic "N'awwwwww!" from Kate and Cassie.

-

Cassie and Jonas were out the front of the Kaplan's home talking while waiting for Cassie's dad to come pick her up. They'd sat together at lunch before when Billy had dragged Jonas along with him, but they'd never spent this much time together. Cassie had enjoyed every second of it. She made to leave when she saw the headlights pull in the driveway but turned back at the last second.

"Hey, umm, are you sure you wouldn't like a lift or something? I'm sure my dad won't mind."

Jonas gave her a small smile, "It's okay, I only live 2 blocks away, it think I'll be able to handle the walk."

"Alright, well, give me your phone." She held out her hand Jonas obliged. "I'll put my number in here and you text me when you get home, so I know you got there safely, yeah?"  
Once she had finished punching in the number, she passed the phone back, flashed Jonas a smile and quickly jumped in her dad's car. Jonas had never felt to excited to be going back to school.


	11. With Animal Ears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next 3 chapters are all going to be continuous. And I am totally loving writing Alex at the moment

Teddy loved how much he had become a part of the Kaplan's family. He no longer had to knock on the door and wait for someone to answer when he came over, he could just stroll on in. He was able to sit comfortably in the kitchen and have coffee with Jeff in the mornings when he came to pick up Billy and Tommy. Rebecca had started putting any clothes he left at the house in Billy's previously unused bottom drawer, along with his toiletries, eliminating the need for an over-night bag (his own mother had started doing a lot more night shifts at the hospital so Teddy often spent the night). Occasional, if everyone else was tied up with something, he would get a call asking if he could pick up Sam or Alex from school or a sports practise. Jeff and Rebecca even let him share a bed with their son when he stayed over, although it concerned him slightly that his super-virginity was that obvious. But he especially loved it today because he had been _personally_ invited to Alex's 7th birthday.

He opened the door to see Alex, dressed as the cutest damn lion Teddy had ever seen, making a beeline for him.

"TeddyTeddyTeddyTeddyTeddy!"

Teddy bent down, picked up the small boy and threw him in the air a little before bringing him into a hug.

"Argh, happy birthday, buddy!" He felt Alex bop him on the head.

"You're not dressed as an animal." Teddy knew he was trying to sound cross but he just couldn't past the fact that he was dressed in a little lion jump suit with his 2 front teeth missing.

_Seriously, can this kid get any more adorable?!_

"I've got my costume in my bag and one for Billy too." This answer seemed to satisfy Alex who squirmed out of Teddy's arms, grabbed his hand and dragged him into the kitchen where Rebecca was decorating cupcakes with Billy. He passed Teddy a headband with black cat's ears on them.

"Here, you can wear these until you get changed because Billy doesn't need them any more." Teddy put the ears on his head and looked over at Billy to see what Alex was talking about. He laughed when he saw Billy smiling at him cheekily. He had teased his hair up and styled it on top of his to look like cat's ears.

"Well, you're looking very anime." He leaned over the bench to give Billy a quick greeting peck.

"I know, right? I was admiring how fast my hair was growing back and I started playing around with it and, yeah, this happened."

"That's actually going to look awesome when you put your costume on."

He slid in between Billy and his mom and started to help with the cupcakes. As soon as Rebecca left the room he felt a hand on his elbow and a pair of lips on his neck.  
  
"You know, you look kinda sexy with those cat ears on." Teddy turned to Billy and placed a hand on his hip.

"Yeah? You look kinda sexy with those, hair... Ears?"

They laughed and leaned in for what started out as a chaste kiss, but quickly turned a little heated. Teddy backed Billy up against the bench and slid his underneath Billy's t-shirt to run his fingers along the small of his back.

"Ugh, get a room, this place is about to be filled with 2nd graders."

Teddy was beginning to think that Tommy's secret superpower was cockblocking.

"You guys aren't even dressed yet." Tommy said from the doorway, wearing a knitted beanie with ear flaps and a rainbow, woollen mohawk running down the middle. Billy peeked around Teddy, slightly red faced, to throw his twin an all too familiar glare.

"Neither are you."

"What? Yes I am." He proceeded to put a place plastic beak on elastic string over his face, "I'm a parrot!"

Teddy laughed and grabbed Billy's hand to drag him out of the kitchen.

"C'mon, I want to see what you look like in this cat, onsie, jump-suit, thingy."

"Bet you'd like to see him out of it even more!"

-

Once Tommy was alone in the kitchen he slunk over to the rack holding the cupcakes. He quickly glanced around him to make sure no one was around before dipping his finger into the frosting on the closest one.

"Hey! Don't touch my cupcakes! They're for me and my friends." Yelled a slightly lispy voice from behind him. "Mom said you need to help Sam finish putting up the streamers."

"Alright, alright I'm coming, keep your mane on Mufasa."

"I'm not Mufasa, I'm Simba, duh."


	12. Wearing Kigurumis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's going to get hotter in the next chapter. Well maybe not exactly hot... Warm? It's going to get warmer in the next chapter!

Seeing Billy in his underwear was not an unusual sight for Teddy. It was quite common for Billy to walk around the house in his boxers and a t-shirt, which Teddy suspected might have been genetic because Tommy did it too. But there was something happening today to make Teddy quite hot under collar as he watched Billy strip off into briefs and a singlet. He wasn't sure if it was the black singlet clinging to his lean frame, the cat ears or the fact that he was wearing _Teddy's favourite boxer briefs_. It definitely had something to do with the look in Billy's eye as he walked over to the edge of his bed where Teddy was currently seated, also in minimal clothing. He couldn't help reaching out to grab the other's hips and pull him over to straddle his lap.

"Are you wearing my Batman underwear?" He practically whispered before lightly nibbling on Billy's earlobe.

"Mmm... Yeah, sorry. Mom accidentally mixed them in with mine and I was all half asleep and stuff this morning so I didn't notice until about midday. Does it bother you?"

"Nope." Teddy may have replied a little too quickly before trailing a series of open mouthed kisses along Billy's jaw.

"Ooh, a little frisky are we?" Billy laughed before meeting Teddy's lip with his own. "We should... Probably finish getting... Ready." He spoke between kisses.

"Yah-huh." Teddy would stop... Eventually.

"We... Still need to... Put those costumes... On."

"Yah-huh."

"Alex's friends are going to be... To be here soon."

"Yah-huh."

Billy climbed off Teddy and made his way over to the bag containing their costumes, Teddy knew he was making a show of bending over to undo the bag. He grabbed his own costume, a black and white fluffy onesie with a long black tail, and threw Teddy his own, also a onesie but this one was purple, shiny and had a scaly tail.

"I'm still so jealous only you could fit into the dragon one." Billy remarked with a pout while pulling his costume up his body, "Alex is going to flip when he see's it."

"I'm fairly confident that this is the best purchase I have ever made." Teddy smiled and spun on the spot before pulling the hood over his head, which was made it look like his face was in a dragon's mouth. "Aww, baby, you look so freakin' cute!"

Billy had just finished drawing a black dot on his nose and whiskers on his cheek when the was rapid knocking on the door. Tommy's voice came from the other side.

"Hey, lovebirds! A bunch of Billy's cousins just rocked up so Rebecca told me to come get you guys... And I'm not allowed to eat anything until you come down, so hop to it!"

Teddy made his way behind Billy, wrapped his arms around his torso and walked awkwardly to the door.

"Hey, so I was thinking, seeing as I'm staying over night, maybe we could, uhh, pick up from were we just left off?" He was glad he was standing behind Billy because he could feel his face heating up.

"R-really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Well, I am very okay with this, not sure how I'm going to last through this party now though."

They both laughed as they walked out the door and Teddy suddenly hit with a rush of nerves. He wasn't sure if they were the good kind or the bad kind yet.

-

The party had finished up for Alex and his friends at about 6pm but the last of Billy's extended family hadn't said their goodbyes until about 9pm. Teddy had already snuck off to the bedroom and Billy was going to meet him there. Halfway up the stairs though he heard a crash in the living room and after a couple of seconds he could hear crying. Figuring that Alex must have still been up running around and tripped over so he quickly made his way back down the stairs and into the living room. The sight before him make him smile in adoration.

Tommy was sitting on the couch with a sniffling Alex cuddled up on his lap. He was rubbing his knee, which was looking rather red.

"Hey, c'mon little man. I think you've been up too late, you've had way to much sugar and we just need to get you into your pyjamas and into bed. What do you think?"

Alex sniffed again and nodded.

"Alright, let's go, dude." He stood with Alex's arms wrapped around his neck and his legs around body, clingy on like a little koala. Tommy rubbed his back soothingly and walked out of the room past Billy, who was grinning.

"Shut up, what was I going to do, just let him cry on the floor?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Yeah, well shouldn't you be _attending_ to the guest in your bedroom at the moment?"

Billy's face was suddenly full of realisation and took the stairs 2 at a time to get back to Teddy.


	13. Making Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late up-date, had a busy weekend. I hope this is worth the wait for anyone who had been following this =]

Teddy had made himself comfortable in Billy's room about 10 minutes ago. He'd stripped out of his dragon suit and was currently laying on Billy's in his boxers and a t-shirt, scrolling through Tumblr on his phone. He didn't mean to become so engrossed, but someone he was following had been spamming gay porn gifs like crazy and while he knew he shouldn't be looking at this kind of stuff in someone else's house, he just couldn't seem to look away. He was lying on his boyfriends bed, in his underwear, looking at 3 second snippets of quite alluring men doing the nasty. Yeah, nothing suss going on here. It didn't even register that he was starting to get hard until he heard Billy open the door, at which point he sat bolt upright, crossed his legs Indian style and put his hands in his lap as inconspicuously as possible. He was starting to regret his recent viewings as he watched Billy slip out of his costume and back into his underwear, well, _Teddy's_ underwear to be more specific.

_God, I don't even know why that's so hot._

He didn't realise until Billy got closer and titled his head with a curious look that the screen of his phone was facing out, clearly displaying 2 guys dry humping over and over again.

"Ooh, helloooooooooooo. What's all the this?" Billy teased as he snatched Teddy's phone away.

"Ugh, I was just harmlessly checking my Tumblr and there was an onslaught of gay porn. I'm just an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time." Teddy replied as Billy climbed into his lap to sit with his back against his chest, continuing to scroll from where Teddy left off.

"Speaking of by- _standing_." It took Teddy a second to figure out what Billy meant by that, until he leaned back to rub his ass against his crotch once.

_Ah crap, forgot about that._

Teddy whined and slumped his head onto the crook of Billy neck to hide his red face.

"Shut-up, I can't help it." Billy giggled in his lap, which really wasn't helping the situation.

"Would it make you feel any better if I said I _really_ wanna make out with you right now." He shifted around so that he was facing Teddy.

"Hmm, I dunno, better try it and see."

There was nothing chaste about this kiss. Teddy had been waiting patiently all afternoon to get his hands on his boyfriend and now that he finally got his chance he wasn't letting go any time soon. Billy tightly wrapped his arms around Teddy's neck and settled in close. Teddy wrapped his own arms around Billy's hips and slowly dragged his bottom lip between his teeth. Billy quietly groaned and rolled his hips down against Teddy's, revealing to the blonde that he definitely wasn't the only one who was hard. It was Teddy's turn to groan this time, though a little louder than Billy, as he started to leaned back against the pillows, Billy eagerly following.

They continued to kiss rough and messy, all tongue and teeth and sucking and biting, for a while until Billy pulled away and latched onto Teddy's neck. He kissed from just below his ear around to his Adam's apple, where he began to suck and lick. Teddy released a breathy moan and his hips involuntarily thrust upward causing his erection to rub against the other boy's. Billy made an almost growling noise and Teddy could feel the vibrations rubble on his throat. He dragged his hands from Billy's waist to squeeze his hips and rub his thumbs along the V of Billy's pelvis while thrusting up again. On the next thrust Billy rolled his hips down to meet Teddy's and moved to lick around the shell of his ear, pulling an ear ring in-between his teeth every now and then. They feel into a rhythm that slowly got harder and faster and Teddy was a little surprised at how calm and comfortable with all of this. But when Billy moved his hand down his torso and tugged lightly at his waist band he suddenly tensed up. Billy looked up quickly with concern in his eyes.

"I-I'm sorry... I just... I'm not..." Teddy turned away in an attempt to hide his embarrassment. "Sorry."

"Hey, Tee, baby... C'mere." Billy gently held his hand to Teddy's cheek, turned his face to meet his, leaned down for a soft kiss and smiled lovingly. "It's okay, we can just keep doing this if you want."

"Yeah, yeah that would be good."

Both boys smiled as they leaned into another kiss. Half-way through Billy flipped them over.

"Here, you go on top so that you're in charge." Teddy stopped for a second to look at his boyfriend. God he adored this boy. He slid his hand underneath Billy to cup the back of his head and rest their foreheads together.

"I love you, Billy." He whispered against the brunettes mouth.

"I love you too, T."

Suddenly all the heat and passion was back in full force. Teddy rolled his groin down against Billy's harder and faster than before. He felt his toes curl and his stomach quiver every time their cocks rubbed together. At some point Billy had slipped one hand up the back of Teddy's shirt to drag his nails across his back and the other hand was firmly massaging an ass cheek. He also hooked his ankles around Teddy's thighs to pull himself closer every time their hips met. They both panting against each others mouths when he felt a heat growing in the lower part of his stomach and knew he was going to come soon.

"B-Billy I'm... I'm gonna... Hah."

"Me...Nghh... Me too."

Right as Billy finished speaking his back arched up underneath Teddy, breathed a long, deep moan and began a series of small shudders. Teddy barely had a second to admire his boyfriend's oragsm face before he felt his toes start to tingle and his vision went hazy. He collapsed against Billy while they both tried to get their breath back. Eventually Teddy moved slightly to the side so he could wrap and arm and a leg around Billy and rest his head on his chest. Billy lightly ran his finger tips up and down his spine and Teddy was quite content to just lay there forever, wondering why it had taken him so long to do this with the boy that he loved. He was almost starting to doze off when he felt Billy laugh and then groan.

"I can't believe I just dry humped you while looking like a cat from the neck up."

Teddy laughed as well and then replied in a rough husky voice, " _I_ can't believe you just came in my underwear."

-

Rebecca was sitting on the couch enjoying a glass of red and relaxing after what was quite a busy day. She was always glad for chances to see the extended family, but she was also just as glad to see the backs of them. While waiting for Jeff to come back from the kitchen with some popcorn, for the movie they were about to watch, she felt the couch dip beside her.

"Oh, Tommy, sweetheart. I thought you'd have locked yourself away in your room by now." She smiled at the white-haired boy.

"What, I'm not allowed to sit around with my parents and watch a movie?"

It took Rebecca a second to reply. "Of course you can, dear. I'm just going to check on what's taking Jeff so long with the popcorn, would you like a drink while I'm up?"

"Yeah can I have some of that grape stuff if there's any left?"

"Alright, back in a minute."

Rebecca walked into the kitchen with a bright, beaming smile on her face. Jeff turn to look at her with an eyebrow raised.

"Well, you certainly look happy about somethi..."

"Tommy just referred to us as his parents."

Jeff stopped what he was doing and turned with a smile that matched his wife's.

"Has he ever done that before?"

"I don't think so, I'm not sure he _realised_ he did it. This is real progress, he's _finally_ starting to let the last of his guard down around us."

Rebecca came back into the living room with Tommy's drink and settled back down in her place next to him, feeling pleasantly satisfied with the day she had just had with ALL her boys.


	14. Eating Ice-cream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's ice-cream in there somewhere, but this is mostly to bring in Mrs. Altman and Sam

It had been a fairly eventful couple of months. They had all happily celebrated their last days of school, sans Cassie and Jonas who were a grade below them, and Teddy had managed to surprised himself with how good his grades had ended up. He was currently working in a diner flipping burgers and Billy had managed to get a job in the comic book shop they often visited, Teddy was quite jealous of this fact. Tommy and Billy had turned 18 a fortnight ago and Kate was pleased to no end when she was allowed to organise their party. It was an event to the least. And during all this time Billy and Teddy had slowly been getting more confident in the bedroom. They had even taken the big leap on the twins birthday and officially lost their virginity to each other. It was a little bit awkward because they'd had a few drinks and Teddy was paranoid the whole time that he would hurt his boyfriend, but all-in-all Teddy couldn't be happier with how their relationship was growing. There would be none of that business tonight however being that ALL the brothers Kaplan were staying at his house.

Earlier that morning Teddy had received a frantic phone call from Billy asking if he could come to stay at his house for the night. Apparently there was infestation of mice in the house so everyone had to be out by early afternoon and stay out for about 24 hours while the house was being sprayed. By midday though Nell had been conspiring with Rebecca over the phone and it had been decided that she and Jeff would spend some "quality time together" in a hotel for the night and the Altman's would house Billy, Tommy, Sam and Alex for the night. Nell had insisted that she needed to repay them for looking after her own son so many times.

So here they were, snugly crammed into Teddy's living room, Teddy and Billy on the couch with Alex squished in-between them, Tommy and Sam on a mattress on the floor (which would later become Billy and Teddy's bed) and Nell in her recliner, all eating ice-cream sundaes and watching The Incredibles before Alex's bed time. Sam had taken an instant liking to Nell because he was allowed to stay up with the big kids to watch another movie after this.

"This sundae is really good Nell." Billy commented halfway through the movie.

"Thanks sweetie, I know I'm not much of a cook but I pride myself on my ability to mash things into ice-cream." She laughed but Teddy knew that she had always felt bad about not being to be there every night to make him big home-cooked meals, especially after the Kaplan's had invited them over for Thanksgiving last year, but he didn't mind. He understood that his mom worked to hard to look after him and as far as he was concerned she was doing a great job.

"What about you there, Mr. Alex?" Nell leaned forward to see Alex with ice-cream all around his mouth, "How's your sundae going?"

"Ifth goof." He managed to reply through a mouthful.

After the second movie and several embarrassing stories about Teddy growing up, Nell had gone off to bed and Sam had fallen asleep next to Tommy. Being the strongest, Teddy picked Sam up and carried him to his room. He placed him down on his double bed next to Alex and tucked him into the covers as gently as he could. Just as he was about to sneak back out of his room he felt something tug his shirt. He turned to see Sam looking up at him while his face slowly contorted and he began to cry. Teddy was a little shocked, Sam had always been so shy around him, he didn't know if it was because he was dating his brother or because he was such a big guy or if he just plain didn't like him that much. He sat down on the bed next to him and pulled him up into a hug.

"Hey Sammy, what's going on buddy? What's the matter?" He whispered and rubbed his back in what he hoped was a comforting manner.

"I'm s-sorry, T-T-Teddy." Sam sniffled into his shoulder.

"You're sorry?" Teddy was confused, "For what? Why are you sorry?"

"B-because it was my f-fault that all the mice came. I had food in," he hiccuped, "food in my r-room, e-even though mom told me not to and now w-we all have to get out of the h-house and me and Alex took your bed..." He started a series of choked sobs that made Teddy's heart lurch.

"Aww Sam, it's okay. I'm sure it wasn't just because of you, I know the twins eat in their rooms too. And mom and I don't mind having you guys over, this has been fun hasn't it?"

"Y-yeah, your mom makes really good sundaes." He sniffled and Teddy laughed quietly.

"Yeah they're pretty good aren't they? You'll have to come back over with Billy one day to have another one."

"That'd be cool." Sam seamed to have calmed down now but Teddy still sat hugging him and rubbing his back and he started to fall asleep. He lay him down and tucked him back in. Sam looked him through half-closed eyes.

"I'm glad Billy chose a cool boyfriend, goodnight Teddy." This made Teddy chuckle a lightly ruffle Sam's hair.

"I'm glad he did too, night Sammy."

-

Tommy had turned the couch into a makeshift bed and had already started watching another movie with Billy when Teddy came in with what was left of the tub of ice-cream and a big goofy grin on his face. He sat down and snuggled into Billy who was sitting on the mattress resting his back against the couch. He spoon fed himself and Billy ice-cream while he told him about what had just happened in the bedroom. Tommy sat there and listened as Billy gushed about the cuteness of it all but huffed and rolled his eyes when they started kissing.

"Oh I'm sorry Tommy, did you want some ice-cream too?" Teddy held a spoonful toward him. "Here comes the aewopwane!"

Tommy grumbled and pulled the blanket up over his head while Billy laughed.

"I should have stayed at Kate's house."


	15. Gender-swapped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMFG I wrote this, like, 8 different ways and I'm still not happy with it, oh well! Warning, there are cries

3 days ago Teddy, Billy and Tommy had all moved into an apartment together and to celebrate the fact that they had _finally_ finished unpacking everything they decided to invite Kate, Cassie and Jonas around for a small house warming party. Billy had decided about 3 hours before everyone was due to arrive that they needed a theme, which Tommy wasn't happy about. Billy had been on the phone to Kate trying to come up with something simple due to the late notice when Teddy and Tommy had gone to get supplies for the party, when they arrived home Billy had an exceptional sly grin on his face.

"We decided on a theme." Billy beamed when Teddy sat down on the couch with him.

"I'm concerned about that look on your face, sweetheart." Teddy mused as he pecked Billy's cheek.

"How opposed would you be to wearing a dress?"

"... I beg your pardon?"

Tommy burst into laughter while packing things into the fridge.

"We decided gender-bent would nice and simple for everyone to organise at such short notice which would mean THAT TOMMY HAS TO WEAR ONE AS WELL!" They both turned their heads to see Tommy slowly peering up from behind the door with a blank expression on his face. "Kate will be here in about half and hour with some dresses for us and Cassie and Jonas agreed to wear each other's clothes."

"You're never allowed to plan things with my girlfriend ever again, yah hear!" Replied Tommy with a frown.

After a few beers however Tommy seemed to be having fun to end running around the apartment wearing one of Kate's green cocktail dresses, much to everyone else's amusement. Cassie and Jonas had arrived together, Cassie wearing Jonas' signature green and yellow hoodie and a pair of his jeans and Jonas wearing Cassie's red leggings and large, black off-the-shoulder t-shirt dress. Kate was originally going to wear something out of Tommy's wardrobe but she decided Billy had better taste in clothing and borrowed a red button shirt, a skinny black tie and a pair of black dress slacks, an outfit Billy had worn last week when he and Teddy celebrated their one year anniversary. Billy himself was wearing a pair of Kate's silver mini shorts and a black, low-cut halter top that showed off all his hairy chest nicely. There was no way Teddy would fit into one of Kate's dresses but she managed to find some black leggings that fit Teddy, albeit snugly, and a yellow tartan button down that he had tied up around his mid-drift. Cassie had completed both Billy and Teddy's outfits buy tying bandannas around their head to make them "look more pin-up".

The night had been going well, everyone happily conversing and laughing. Jonas was talking to Teddy in the kitchen about the nursing course he and Tommy were starting after the new year (Tommy had confided in Kate that he could see himself working in paediatrics so she convinced him to enrol with Teddy, everyone thought it was sweet though they'd never actually tell him that). Cassie and Kate were sitting with Billy on the couch a bit misty-eyed while Billy told them how he and Teddy spent their one year anniversary, which involved them pretty much re-enacting their first kiss and then going out to dinner, followed by some more explicit details that they weren't going to share with everyone. It was around this time that Tommy walked up to Teddy with the house phone telling him it was the police. Teddy took the phone in confusion, but quickly wished he hadn't. He went into the bedroom to finish the conversation. Billy came just after he hung up and it felt like his stomach was sitting somewhere in his throat. His eyes began to well as Billy sat on the bed next to him and held his hand.

"T, honey, what's wrong?" He asked gently.

Teddy could barely keep his voice together to answer, "Mom was in a, in a car accident. She... she..." His voice broke and felt a tear slip free. "Before emergency crews even got there... She's dead."

-

Billy had come out to tell everyone what happened and then called Jeff to pick-up Teddy and himself to go to the police station, seeing as everyone with had been drinking. Cassie and Jonas left shortly after the other 2 left and Kate had stayed behind to help Tommy clean the apartment. A few hours later while Kate and Tommy were laying in bed they heard Teddy and Billy come home. They were mostly silent except for the occasional sniffle from Teddy and after and they went straight into their bedroom. Tommy felt sick. He had really liked Nell, he liked chatting with her at Teddy's house while the other 2 were off being gross and coupley. And Teddy was the last person in the world who deserved this. Besides Kate, Teddy was his best friend and he hated that such a sweet guy now had to go through all of this shit. He excused himself from Kate to go to the bathroom which, unfortunate, was next to Billy and Teddy's room. He could hear Teddy crying, choking on sobs that sounded almost painful. His voice now rough and slightly squeaky. He could hear Billy's wavering as he was trying to comfort Teddy, he guessed that he was crying too.

"My mom... My mom... Wh-why is she gone?... I love you, Billy, puh-please don't leave me..."

"I love you too, sweetheart... It's okay, I'm not going anywhere... I love you so much..."

He finished up and got there hell of there, not being able to listen to more of those gut-wrenching cries.

"Hey, you alright?" Kate asked when he got back in bed.

He didn't say anything, he just curled up around her silently letting a few tears drop into her shoulder until they eventually both fell asleep.


	16. In a Different Style of Clothing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is pretty awful, I do apologise, I promise the next one will be better D=

Teddy couldn't which one he was more anxious about; his first day of work placement tomorrow or Billy coming home after spending a week with his paternal grandfather, uncle and aunt. Tommy and Billy's grandfather had managed to get in touch with them a couple of weeks after Teddy's mother had died and offered for them stay with him for a little while to get to know the rest of their family.They had both decided to hold off on meeting anyone in favour of being there for Teddy. He'd felt terrible about them putting this off for him, but he also didn't think he would have made it through the last few months without them, especially Billy. So when summer vacation rolled around Teddy had convinced them to go ahead before he and Tommy were due to start holiday work placement at the hospital.

He was actually pretty excited to start doing some work in the hospital, especially since all of his mom's friends were fighting to get him in their ward. He and Tommy both ended up being placed in paediatrics, which Peter was over the moon about. He'd picked up his and Tommy's this morning and Kate, who had recently moved in too (even though she _owned_ the apartment and had been letting the guys live in it), had demanded a fashion show. Of course Teddy obliged and began a strut around the living room, much to Kate's amusement. In fact they were both getting so into Teddy's little dance that they didn't realise 2 other bodies were standing in the doorway until there was a wolf whistle.

"Hellooooooooooooooo nurse!"

Teddy spun on his heels to see Billy grinning at him and Tommy trying to repress a laugh. He suddenly felt himself blushing and he wasn't sure if was because he had been sprung or because of the way Billy looked. He was wearing a very sharp, very -expensive- looking dark navy 3 piece suit with a red shirt and tie that matched the suit. Tommy was wearing a similar suit though his was grey with a green shirt. Teddy also took a lot of notice of the fact that Billy had 7 days worth or stubble, which for him was a decent amount of beard. He felt Kate slide past him and walk toward Billy and Teddy.

"Oh my god! Those suits!" She marvelled and pulled at Tommy's jacket a little.

"Yeah, missed you too, babe." Huffed Tommy before Kate pulled him in for a kiss.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, but these suits! Are they from your grandfather?"

"Yeah," Billy replied before quickly pecking Teddy on the side of the mouth and moving to put his bags on the couch, "We sat for a fancy-ass family portrait this morning, and we kinda felt so awesome in the suits we decided we 'didn't have enough time to change before we left' and home in them." He laughed.

"We looked pretty awesome getting lunch at a Burger King in these bad boys." Smirked Tommy. "Speaking of new suits, did you get my scrubs too?"

"Yeah man, I put them in your room."

"Awesome. Kate you should, like, come with me, to help me try them on... And then have sex with me." He said before grabbing Kate around the waist and dashing off down the hall to their bedroom.

Teddy laughed before turning around to Billy who was slowly walking back over to him with an almost hungry look in his eye.

"Hey, gorgeous. I missed you."

"I missed you too, Nurse Altman."

"Yeah? The scrubs doing it for you are they?" Teddy grinned before wrapping his arms around Billy's waist.

"Oh, they so are." He leaned in to kiss Teddy for a few seconds.

"Mmm... You know, you look so sexy in that suit." Another kiss. "And this whole rugged beard thing, holy shit babe."

He could feel Billy smiling against his mouth while they shared another chaste kiss before Billy started kiss along Teddy's jaw, making his way to his ear.

"I think Tommy and Kate had the right idea about going to the bedroom."

That was all the encouragement Teddy needed. He hauled Billy up by his thighs and wrapped his legs around his waist and went straight for their bedroom.

-  
That night, after everyone had satisfactorily made up for a week apart from their partners, Billy, Teddy, Tommy and Kate ate dinner in front of the television together and discussed the twin's trip. It turned out that they're grandfather wasn't sure where their real mom was but had been searching for some time. They did get to meet several other members of the Maximoff family though; Their uncle Pietro, his wife Crystal and their daughter Luna, as well as their Aunt Lorna and her boyfriend Alex. Apparently the whole family was quite well of, their grandfather, Eric, was a business man of sorts, although he wasn't very specific about what he actually did and the twins suspected it wasn't always entirely legal. Their uncle Pietro owned a very successful delivery company called Quicksilver and Tommy looked so much like him that he could have been mistaken his son. Lorna and her boyfriend were sort of the black sheep, she was the half sister of Pietro and Wanda and was a bit of a punk with bright green hair, her boyfriend liked to be referred to as Havok, Tommy took an instant like to them.

In all the twins had a good trip and found out a lot about their family history, including Wanda being sick like Billy when she was a younger too. But they also found out how dysfunctional the family was, particularly the relationship between Pietro and Eric. So while they were glad they got to meet everyone, they didn't mind waiting a while before going back.


	17. During Their Morning Ritual

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge time leap in this one, set over a year after the last one. They're all around 20 (or close to turning 20)

...zz ...zzz ...ZZZ BUZZZ BUZZZ BUZZZ BU...

Teddy reached blindly for the alarm clock and finally found the snooze button. Still not quite awake he rolled over and flopped his arm back down around Billy, maybe a little harder than he intended because it caused Billy to groan sleepily. Teddy gave him an apology kiss on the cheek and snuggled into him for what felt like 30 seconds before the snooze alarm went off.

_Hhhnnnnnuuuggghhhhhhhhhh! That was NOT 5 minutes._

"How come you start before me but I still have to get up at the same time?" Billy slurred and pulled Teddy closer to him after he flicked the alarm back off again.

"Because you love me." Teddy nuzzled into Billy's neck playfully, starting to wake up a bit more now.

"It's too early for loving." His cuddliness outweighed any protests he had and it made Teddy laugh groggily.

"Well then, grumpy, I guess it's too early for kisses too then?"

"Nooooooo~!" Billy whined and pulled Teddy on top of him. Well, tried to anyway in his half awake state, but Teddy knew what he was doing and went with it. He rested his forearms by Billy's head and eased his weight onto him while Billy ran his arms up and down his sides. They leaned in and kissed slowly and lazily until the snooze came back on again, startling them both. Teddy leaned down for one more kiss before crawling off Billy to the alarm, switching the snooze off and actually got out of the bed. He noticed that Billy had rolled over to go back to sleep.

"C'mon lazy-ass, if you get up now I'll make you coffee while you watch cartoons."

Billy inhaled deeply before basically rolling off the bed. He knelt down beside the bed, rested his head on his folded arms on the edge and turned toward Teddy with a still-sleepy grin on his face.

"Love you, baby."

"Told you so." Teddy winked as he left the bedroom and headed toward for the bathroom. He could hear Tommy in there having a shower, but after nearly 2 years of living together and so much time previously spent in the Kaplan house none of them had a problem walking into the bathroom while someone else was in there. In fact Kate was already in there and said good morning to Teddy through a mouth-full of toothpaste as he walked in to use the toilet. Kate and Tommy were always the first ones up, they went for early morning runs while Teddy and Billy were still dead to the world.

Teddy finished up in the bathroom, went back into the bedroom to change out of his pyjamas and then into the living room where Billy was sitting cross-legged on the couch, watching Adventure Time and eating a bowl of fruit loops. Teddy thought it was cute how much of man-child Billy could be. In the kitchen he found a bowl of cornflakes sitting on the bench, without milk on them yet, and pop-tarts in the toaster.

"Sorry that bowl's so small, we need to put cornflakes on the grocery list." Billy called from the couch, still engrossed in his cartoon.

"Thanks B."

Teddy had been appointed the barista of the house long ago so he made 4 cups of coffee, poured some milk into his cornflakes and grabbed the pop-tart form the toaster. At this point Kate and Tommy came to collect their coffees and Billy had grabbed half of the pop-tart and his own coffee and they all settled onto the couches to watch cartoons until Teddy and Tommy had to leave for class. Just as Teddy was about to leave he turned to Billy to give him a quick good-bye peck.

"What time are you working today?"

"I've got midday until close, so I'll bring home dinner around 7-ish?"

"Alright, see you then."

He and Tommy were almost out the door when Billy yelled out, in a mock tone.

"Have a good day at school boys!"

They turned to see Kate blowing them kisses and Billy grinning behind his coffee mug.

-

Half-way through their drive to class Teddy turned to Tommy.

"So, umm, I'm thinking of maybe asking Billy to marry me?"

Tommy almost swerved into the next lane.

"Shut the front door! Are you serious?"

Teddy laughed nervously. "Yeah I am. Do you think it's too fast? Like, I know it's only been 3 years, actually it's our 3 year coming up on the weekend and that's when I was thinking of asking him, but I know we've got a really good thing going here and I don't want to fuck it up by putting too much pressure on him or anyth..."

"Ted! Gezz calm down man. Trust me when I say _he_ will say yes. He's crazy about you, dude! I'm pretty sure he loves you so much he'll say yes before you can even finish the sentence." Tommy turned to Teddy and smiled. "Do it, man."

"... Okay." Teddy was beaming at this point.

"Oh, dude, you know what this means though, we're totally going to be bro's in-law. How cool is that?!"


	18. Spooning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the lack of updates. It's been a kind of hectic week and as such I haven't had any motivation. Getting back into it now though =]

By the time Billy arrived home with dinner it was close to 8pm.

"Ooh, you got the expensive pizzas. Are we celebrating something? Or is it to soften the blow of bad news?" Teddy asked while moving from the couch to his boyfriend. Well, maybe towards the pizzas, he was pretty hungry.

"No, it's celebration pizzas!" Billy beamed, "I had a talk with Stephen after close tonight, hence why I'm so late, and he offered me a 'retail management traineeship'. I am going to the assistant manager of Strange Comics."

"Oh wow, that's awesome, B. C'mere." Teddy pulled his positively giddy boyfriend in for a victory kiss.

Billy loved working at the comic book store but recently he had expressed his worry to Teddy that it was becoming a bit of a dead-end and he was almost considering resigning, so he knew that Billy couldn't be happier to be getting a promotion new qualifications.

"And seeing as I'll be getting a slight pay rise, I decided to splurge on dinner tonight. A large supreme with extra olives for you 2 weirdos." He passed a box to Teddy and Tommy with a mildly disgusted look on his face, he and Kate both hated olives. "And a medium barbecue chicken for the 2 of us who don't have a horse metabolism or broken taste buds."  
  
Teddy and Tommy easily finished off 4 pieces each and would usually steal Kate and Billy's leftovers but tonight Kate surprised them all by eating 4 out of her and Billy's 6 on her own.

"What? No-one has done the grocery shopping yet, I've hardly had anything all day." Kate said, a little defensively.

"Didn't you and Clint go out for lunch today?" Tommy asked with a raised eyebrow, which earned him a glare from his girlfriend. Teddy knew that it was around _that time of the month_ for Kate and knew better than to question woman about her eating habits when hormones were involved. Tommy obviously realised the same thing because he shut-up quick smart.

After a couple of hours watching television and chatting about their days Billy and Teddy decided to sneak off to their room when things started to get a little tense between Kate and Tommy, they'd worked out pretty early not to stick around for their fights. They changed into their sleepwear and jumped into bed. They had no intention of falling asleep yet, but they liked to get comfortable and watch TV in their room together. As Billy flicked through the channels, Teddy leaned over pressed sneaky kisses to his neck and made his way up to his bearded jaw and almost to his mouth.

"Nuh-uh, you're going to have to clean your teeth if you want the goods, babe."

"Oh what? That's not cool." Teddy replied in a mock-hurt tone with cheeky grin and nuzzled into the closely trimmed hair on Billy's cheek. God, he loved that beard.  
  
"Your breath is all olivey, it's gross." Billy laughed and tried to roll over while Teddy flopped all over him and continued to try and kiss him.

"Aww c'mon baby, I just want to congratulate you."

"Eww... No!"

"But I love you and you should love my tasty olive breath."

They laughed and rolled around playfully until suddenly Teddy froze.

"Whoa, Teddy? You okay?" Billy was suddenly very serious.

"Yeah, I just... I don't feel good." Teddy knew his face was going pale, he could feel it along with the sudden nausea. "I think I will go brush my teeth now."

"... I think I'll go with you, just in case."

They both got up and made their way to the bathroom, Billy taking every opportunity to rub Teddy's back soothingly. As soon has they had finished brushing their teeth Tommy came bolting in and just made it to the toilet before he threw up. The sight nearly sent Teddy over the edge so they took that as their cue to leave. Teddy made his way back into bed to curl up on his side in the fetal position. Billy came in shortly after with a bucket and a glass of water.

"Kate was saying out in the kitchen that there must have been something off on that pizza you guys had, we both agreed it must have been those disgusting olives." Billy tried not to sound too teasing as slide into bed behind Teddy.

"Nnnnggghhh, shut-up." Teddy whined.

"Aww I'm sorry, T, I'm just teasing." Teddy felt him curl up around his back and peck him on the cheek while sliding his arm around his torso to rub his belly in slow circles. "But you guys probably do have food poisoning. I'm sorry I brought you infected pizza."

Teddy managed a laugh.

" _I'm_ sorry I'm sick when we're supposed to be celebrating your promotion."

"Pfft, I'm sure we can find a way to make it up to each other tomorrow night. Seriously though, are you feeling alright? You still feeling like you're going to throw up?"

"I'm feeling a tiny bit less pukey. So long as you keep spooning me and rubbing my tummy." He didn't mean for that sound as pathetic as it did.

"Cutehead." Teddy could feel Billy's small smile as he placed his lips on his temple. "But I'm the smaller one so technically I think I'm jetpacking you."

-

**EARLIER THAT DAY.**

As soon as Teddy and Tommy left for class Billy turned to Kate on the couch.

"So, I've been thinking a lot, and I don't know if it's too soon or anything, buuuuuuut, I'm thinking of proposing to Teddy."

Kate choked on her coffee.

"Get the front door! Argh, really?" She splutter and beamed.

"Yeah." Billy laughed and smiled widely. "I'm thinking of doing it that weekend after our 3 year anniversary, that sound be plenty of time to get something organised."

"Ohmygodohmygod! You guys are going to get married!"

"Well, he has to yes first.

"Of course he will freakin' say yes!"

They spent the rest of the morning discussing whether to get a ring or not and possible scenarios for a proposal until Billy had to go to work, with a massive smile plastered to his face.


	19. Doing Something Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally putting up the latest chapter, sorry to anyone who is actually following this for the hold up. It's a duel proposal, or is it? It totally is, you all know that it is!

Seeing as both Billy and Teddy had to work on the day of their anniversary they decided to get up early and head out to "their tree" to have coffee and breakfast and watch the sunrise rather than the sunset. Sitting on the bonnet of Billy's Magna (the old truck long gone) Teddy sipped his coffee and went over his pre-prepared speech in his head, trying not to seem too nervous (little did he know Billy was doing the same thing so it easily went unnoticed by both parties). Tommy and Kate had gone with him the day before to pick out a ring on his lunch break, both sharing knowing glances that Teddy couldn't quite seem to figure out and they perused through the cases of jewellery. It seemed as though he would never find the right one and was almost tempted at one point to just go to the mall and pay a quarter to get a plastic Green Lantern ring in one of the dispensers. But then suddenly Kate yelled at him to come quickly. When he saw the ring Kate was pointing at he knew instantly that he had to get it. A white gold band with a small red gem between two blues ones, it was a little too cheap to be a ruby and sapphires but he didn't care, Billy would love it.

The box containing said ring was now sitting in the pocket of his scrubs (Billy was dropping him off at work from here) and felt like it was going to burn a hole right through the material. He raised his croissant to his mouth to take another bite but his nerves were over-riding his appetite. He had wanted to propose this morning in the glow of the sunrise so that 1- he wouldn't have to dwell on it all day at work, and 2- he thought it would be perfectly cliché to do this during the sunrise, in much the same way they had shared their first kiss in the back of his truck all those years ago during the sunset.

Once he felt like he had arranged everything he wanted to say in his head, Teddy put his hand in his pocket containing the ring and turned to Billy. Suddenly he was struck with a total mind-blank. Billy was looking at him with orange glow of the sunrise illuminating his face. Despite the big bags under his eyes (Billy was not one for mornings) he looked... beautiful. It was not often that Teddy would think of his partner as beautiful, and not because he didn't think he was, it just usually wasn't the word that would pop into his head. But right now, seeing Billy with a little half-smile on his face and slight breeze blowing through his hair, Teddy saw something a little magical and knew that asking this man to marry him would be the second best decision of his life, the first being asking him to go on that first date. Before he had the chance to say any of this however, Billy took his hand and brought one leg up onto the car to face him more fully.

"Hey, so, we've been together for a while T, and I hope you know I love you, like, so much," Billy's hand was sweaty around his and his voice had a slight quiver to it, like he might start crying. "and I want you to know that the past few years with you, the time with the cancer included, have been the best years of my life."

Teddy could see Billy's eyes starting to water and suddenly his stomach felt like it was doing back-flips.

_Is he... is he about to break-up with you, Altman? Holy shit, he is! He's telling you how much he loves you but he's about to burst into tears, like he's trying to not to hurt you too much. Why is this happening? What went wrong? Everything was perfect. Wasn't it? You were going to ask him to be your husband and he was going to say yes and you were going to be happy... together forever... you have a ring..._

"Hey, Ted, you okay? You look a little pale." Teddy heard Billy talking but it sounded slightly muffled over the sound of his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He just nodded in reply, scared to open his mouth for fear of crying, or throwing up.

"Okay, um, well... I've been thinking a lot about us lately, and what this relationship could hold in the future and I've come to the conclusion that it's time to take this, us, in a bit of a different direction. And I think the only way to go about that is to..."

"Break-up ?" Teddy interrupted in a shaky whisper, the lump now formed in his throat felt too constricting to ask it any other way, as a tear slid down his cheek.

"ask you... wait... what?" Billy stared wide eyed at Teddy who was now visibly struggling to not to completely breakdown, "Break-up? I, no! Why would you think _that_ , babe? That's the last thing I want to do," Teddy, now slightly confused, watched Billy get off the bonnet of the car, fish something out his pocket, and then get down on one knee, "I want you to marry me!"

_... WHAT?!_

Teddy could only stare, trying to process what had just happened. Oh, he felt like such an idiot! Here was his boyfriend kneeling in front of him, with a box containing a white gold band with a small purple gem between two green ones, looking increasingly worried as Teddy's brain struggled to catch up. A second later it did and he jumped down from the car and lifted Billy into his arms with an almost manic sounding laugh.

"Oh my GOD, I feel so stupid!"

Billy wrapped his arms around Teddy's neck and his legs around his hips, letting out a relieved laugh.

"So, will you?" He brought their faces together so his nose bumped Teddy's, "Will you marry me, Theodore Altman?"

Teddy held Billy with one arm while the other reached down to his pocket. He smiled as he watched Billy raise an eyebrow and lifted his own little box up. Opening it with one hand he revealed the ring inside.

"Only if you marry me first, William Kaplan."

Billy launched his mouth against Teddy's. The uncontrollable smiling made kissing a little awkward but Teddy couldn't care less. He was so incredibly happy, a complete 180 from the way he felt less than a minute ago. After a several more kisses he set Billy back on his feet and slipped the ring onto his finger while Billy did the same to him.

"I love you so much, Teddy. I can't believe you thought I was breaking up with you, you dork." Billy laughed as he slid his arms around Teddy's torso.

"Yeah, well, shut-up," Teddy smiled, slowly rubbing his hands up and down Billy's arms, "I can already see the shit I am going to cop from your brother about that."

"Speaking of Tommy, you didn't happen to go ring shopping with him and Kate, did you?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing. I have a feeling that our friend, Miss Bishop, may have not have found these rings by accident."

"I have a feeling you might be right."

"Hey Billy?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Teddy discovered 3 things that morning. 1- The reason why Tommy and Kate had been secretive and a slightly giddy the past few days. 2- It was possible, although slightly uncomfortable, to have sex in the back of Billy's car. 3- That nothing will get you more attention from the other nurses than an engagement ring.

-

Kate paced around the bathroom anxiously. This was the third time she had wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans. Her her emotions were going haywire. She was filled with a mixture of emotions, all were out-weighed by her feeling of nausea. She felt like crying just for the sake of it. If it was true, if what she had suspected was confirmed, how was she going to confront Tommy? Kate honestly had no clue how she was going to have this conversation with him.

_BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING_

Time was up, she rushed to the sink and the sight that greeted her caused her heart to hammer and a small smile to grace her lips.

Suspicions confirmed.

Kate Bishop and Tommy Shepard were going to be parents.


End file.
